diff --git a/invokeai/backend/model_manager/search.py b/invokeai/backend/model_manager/search.py
index f7ef2e049d..4bfaa6ce7d 100644
--- a/invokeai/backend/model_manager/search.py
+++ b/invokeai/backend/model_manager/search.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from logging import Logger
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Callable, Optional, Set, Union
+from invokeai.app.services.config import InvokeAIAppConfig
 
 from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
 
@@ -117,13 +118,10 @@ class ModelSearch(ModelSearchBase):
     """
 
     models_found: Set[Path] = Field(default_factory=set)
-    scanned_dirs: Set[Path] = Field(default_factory=set)
-    pruned_paths: Set[Path] = Field(default_factory=set)
+    config: InvokeAIAppConfig =  InvokeAIAppConfig.get_config()
 
     def search_started(self) -> None:
         self.models_found = set()
-        self.scanned_dirs = set()
-        self.pruned_paths = set()
         if self.on_search_started:
             self.on_search_started(self._directory)
 
@@ -139,53 +137,51 @@ class ModelSearch(ModelSearchBase):
 
     def search(self, directory: Union[Path, str]) -> Set[Path]:
         self._directory = Path(directory)
+        if not self._directory.is_absolute():
+            self._directory = self.config.models_path / self._directory
         self.stats = SearchStats()  # zero out
         self.search_started()  # This will initialize _models_found to empty
         self._walk_directory(directory)
         self.search_completed()
         return self.models_found
 
-    def _walk_directory(self, path: Union[Path, str]) -> None:
-        for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path, followlinks=True):
-            # don't descend into directories that start with a "."
-            # to avoid the Mac .DS_STORE issue.
-            if str(Path(root).name).startswith("."):
-                self.pruned_paths.add(Path(root))
-            if any(Path(root).is_relative_to(x) for x in self.pruned_paths):
-                continue
+    def _walk_directory(self, path: Union[Path, str], max_depth: int = 20) -> None:
+        absolute_path = Path(path)
+        if len(absolute_path.parts) - len(self._directory.parts) > max_depth \
+                or not absolute_path.exists() \
+                    or absolute_path.parent in self.models_found:
+            return
+        entries = os.scandir(absolute_path)
+        entries = [entry for entry in entries if not entry.name.startswith(".")]
+        dirs = [entry for entry in entries if entry.is_dir()]
+        file_names = [entry.name for entry in entries if entry.is_file()]
+        if any(
+            x in file_names
+            for x in [
+                "config.json",
+                "model_index.json",
+                "learned_embeds.bin",
+                "pytorch_lora_weights.bin",
+                "image_encoder.txt",
+            ]
+        ):
+            try:
+                self.model_found(absolute_path)
+            except KeyboardInterrupt:
+                raise
+            except Exception as e:
+                self.logger.warning(str(e))
+            finally:
+                return
 
-            self.stats.items_scanned += len(dirs) + len(files)
-            for d in dirs:
-                path = Path(root) / d
-                if path.parent in self.scanned_dirs:
-                    self.scanned_dirs.add(path)
-                    continue
-                if any(
-                    (path / x).exists()
-                    for x in [
-                        "config.json",
-                        "model_index.json",
-                        "learned_embeds.bin",
-                        "pytorch_lora_weights.bin",
-                        "image_encoder.txt",
-                    ]
-                ):
-                    self.scanned_dirs.add(path)
-                    try:
-                        self.model_found(path)
-                    except KeyboardInterrupt:
-                        raise
-                    except Exception as e:
-                        self.logger.warning(str(e))
+        for n in file_names:
+            if any([n.endswith(suffix) for suffix in {".ckpt", ".bin", ".pth", ".safetensors", ".pt"}]):
+                try:
+                    self.model_found(absolute_path / n)
+                except KeyboardInterrupt:
+                    raise
+                except Exception as e:
+                    self.logger.warning(str(e))
 
-            for f in files:
-                path = Path(root) / f
-                if path.parent in self.scanned_dirs:
-                    continue
-                if path.suffix in {".ckpt", ".bin", ".pth", ".safetensors", ".pt"}:
-                    try:
-                        self.model_found(path)
-                    except KeyboardInterrupt:
-                        raise
-                    except Exception as e:
-                        self.logger.warning(str(e))
+        for d in dirs:
+            self._walk_directory(absolute_path / d)